1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to software for use in a network, and more particularly, to software for establishing an application associated with a selected non-executable file in a network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers have proven to be among the most powerful and versatile tools developed over the last several decades, and continue to improve as processing speeds rise, applications mature, and new innovations add functionality. A modem computer is considerably more powerful than computers only five or ten years old.
Although many computers are designed to operate as an isolated, standalone machine, systems designers commonly link multiple standalone computers into a network to facilitate communications and resource sharing. The network provides access to applications and devices to the various connected workstations so that the users may share these resources. In addition, the network facilitates communication among the workstations so that the users can exchange information. Many network schemes are known, including client/server, mainframe, and peer-to-peer systems.
The workstations in many networks are not merely dumb terminals, but retain many functions which allow them to operate as independent computers, even though many functions are provided by a connected computer, such as a server. Some useful features of standalone systems, however, conflict or defy compatibility with a network environment. For example, many standalone systems employ file typing to associate a file with a particular application and initiate that application. For example, in the WINDOWS 3.1 operating environment from MICROSOFT, a file manager program lists a series of files stored in a memory. The files may be associated with several different applications, such as a word processing, spreadsheet, or graphic design applications. While in the file manager program, a user may select one of the files for access, for example by using a pointing device like a mouse.
Individual files may include a file type extension, such as the last three letters in the name of the file, which corresponds to the relevant application. Such file type extensions indicate (to the file manager program) which application program is associated with the selected file. In the typical WINDOWS environment, the file manager accesses a local memory location which stores a table of file type extensions and a series of application identifiers to associate certain applications with particular file type extensions. The file manager then initiates the appropriate application and passes the file name to the application for access by the application.
In a network environment, however, many application programs typically reside on a remote computer, e.g. a server, to facilitate sharing of the application. As the applications become available or are updated on the remote computer, the file type information stored in the local memory of the workstation may become outdated. Consequently, a program such as the file manager may be unable to retrieve valid file type information from the local memory for a selected application stored on a remote computer. With respect to new applications resident at the remote computer, appropriate file type information may be nonexistent in the local memories of the network workstations. Thus, to ensure that the file type information is updated, the local memory of each workstation is individually adjusted each time the file type information for an application is added or changed at a great cost of administrator time and resources.